Article carriers are well-known in the art for carrying luggage and other articles of cargo on top of a motor vehicle. The conventional article carrier assembly includes a pair of side rails that mount directly to the vehicle exterior and one or more cross rails that mount transversely across or between the side rails. One or more of the cross rails may be adjustable to accommodate cargo articles of varying sizes.
Typically, to reposition an adjustable cross rail longitudinally with respect to the side rails, the cross rail must be unlocked from each side of the vehicle, moved longitudinally along the side rails, and then re-locked from each side of the vehicle. This situation is rather inconvenient for the vehicle user because of the need for unlocking and re-locking the cross rail from each side of the vehicle.
Recently, there have been proposed article carriers that the vehicle user can reposition longitudinally while remaining on one side of the vehicle. Examples of such article carriers are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,715,980, 5,190,198, and 5,203,483. In the constructions disclosed by each of these patents, the cross rail has a pair of locking members at opposing ends thereof and an actuating mechanism on one of the opposing ends that affects movement of both locking members.
The problem with the article carriers proposed in the above-mentioned patents is that complicated mechanisms are needed to transmit motion between the actuating mechanism and the locking assembly that is distal from the actuating mechanism. The costs and difficulty associated with manufacturing such complicated mechanisms are rather high in comparison to the conventional assemblies in which the cross rail must be locked and unlocked from both sides of the vehicle.